Methods and systems for imaging orthodontic aligners

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatuses for 3D imaging to measure the shape of orthodontic aligners, teeth, and other oral structures simultaneously, in-vivo or in-vitro. These methods and apparatuses may be used to determine contact locations of aligners with teeth and/or teeth with other teeth with very high precision, including determining the size of gaps where they are not in contact. These measurements may be used design, modify or replace an aligner and/or to verify aligner fit. 3D models of the whole aligner and teeth may be generated.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/048,054, filed Jul. 27, 2018, titled “OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY FOR ORTHODONTIC ALIGNERS,” now U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0029522, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/537,937, filed Jul. 27, 2017, titled “OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY FOR ORTHODONTIC ALIGNERS,” and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

This application may claim priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/662,234 (utility application), titled “INTRAORAL SCANNER WITH DENTAL DIAGNOSTICS CAPABILITIES,” filed Jul. 27, 2017, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

All publications and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

FIELD

Dental scanning methods and apparatuses, including dental optical coherence tomography that may be used to accurately measure the geometry of an aligner and teeth simultaneously.

BACKGROUND

Many oral appliances, including dental aligners, are worn in the oral cavity and may interact with oral structures for therapeutic or cosmetic effects. For example, dental aligners are worn on the teeth to apply force to straighten the teeth. Oral appliances may be custom formed to fit the patient's teeth and oral cavity. However, measuring the fit and interaction between an oral appliance and oral structures, such as teeth, may be difficult.

Scanning may be used to examine the shape of an oral appliance or of oral structures, however it is difficult to simultaneously examine both the appliance and the teeth or other oral structures when the appliance is in place. Typical optical intra-oral scanners capture only the first surface encountered in the line of sight. The surfaces of the teeth and portions of the appliance are hidden, preventing examination of their interaction. CT scanning uses X-rays which can penetrate many materials, but with which it is difficult to simultaneously image both plastic features of a dental appliance and the teeth due to their widely different opacity to X-rays. Furthermore, these X-rays are harmful to the patient. Other techniques such as filling gaps between the appliance and the teeth with colored gels do not provide quantitative measurements and are subject to large errors and usage problems.

Thus, there is a need for methods and apparatuses that may be used to examine both an oral structure (such as the teeth) and an appliance worn on the oral structure, and particularly the interaction between the two, while the appliance is being worn by the patient. Described herein are methods and apparatuses that may address this need.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Described herein are methods and apparatuses, including devices and systems (e.g., oral scanners) for concurrently imaging an oral structure (such as the teeth) and a dental appliance (such as an aligner) in a patient, while the patient is wearing the appliance, for imaging ex-vivo oral structures and appliances, or for imaging models of oral structures and appliances. These methods and apparatuses may include a scanner, or oral scanner, that includes both surface scanning and penetrative scanning. In particular, these apparatuses and methods may use penetrative scanning using an optical technique such as optical coherence tomography (OCT). Alternatively or additionally, these methods an apparatuses may include the use of a penetrative wavelength such as visible light, infrared/near-IR in trans-illumination or reflective imaging of IR/near-IR light.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and most early applications were in ophthalmology. OCT may non-invasively image through materials including some biological tissues, plastics, ceramics, and other materials, typically using near infrared light.

The complex geometry and mechanics of aligners acting on teeth may make it difficult to predict or measure the full interaction between the aligner and the teeth when an aligner is worn. OCT imaging may provide full 3D measurements of the aligner shape, positions of the teeth, locations of contact between them, and gap sizes where they are not in contact. By measuring an aligner and the teeth before and after mounting the aligner on the teeth, changes in the aligner shape and teeth positions can be observed. OCT systems normally measure only over a relatively small area capturing only one or a few teeth. Described herein are stitching techniques to join separate images together into a model of larger portions, such as a quadrant, a full jaw, or both jaws together. The resulting measurements can be used to verify aligner fit and/or locate areas of desired or undesired contact or lack of contact between the aligner and the teeth. Measurements can be made in-vivo or in-vitro. They can be used to verify the results of simulations of living jaws or laboratory models of jaws. They can also be used to evaluate the activation of attachments and the effect of staging on multiple surfaces. OCT systems can provide resolution on the order of 5 μm, fine enough that it may be used to check the accuracy of attachment shape and placement on teeth and/or the interaction between the attachment(s) and the aligner. This information may be used to modify the aligner, attachments, and/or tooth geometry to improve contacts if desired. These methods and apparatuses may also be used during manufacture of any of the apparatuses described herein. For example, an aligner manufacturer may use this information to measure the drape of plastic over a thermoforming mold to better understand the molding process and/or monitor the accuracy and consistency of the molding, or similarly to monitor other manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing. In addition, the methods and apparatuses described herein may also be used to inspect an aligner for defects such as breaks, cracks, and/or micro-holes.

Currently, OCT may be used for inspecting the quality of dental crowns, caries, and cracks in teeth. Described herein is the use of OCT to concurrently and simultaneously measure both the teeth and an aligner. These methods an apparatuses may also scan the teeth to identify features such as cracks, caries and the like. For example, both the teeth and the aligner may be simultaneously scanned, and the scan of the teeth may be automatically, manually or semi-automatically monitored. For example, the method or apparatus may analyze the scan(s) and may alert the dental professional (e.g., dentist, orthodontist, technician, etc.) if an attachment is planned at or near a location with a cavity or crack, indicating that remedial action should be taken before installing the attachment, and/or modifying the attachment.

OCT may be used to monitor the palate. For example, OCT can image hard surfaces, including the palate. Imaging of palatal sutures could be used to monitor the results of skeletal expansion with one or more palatal expansion appliances. It is often difficult to determine when complete palatal expansion has occurred. For example, doctors typically instruct patients to continue wearing such appliances long after the desired movement has taken place, in order to ensure that new bone is bridging the gap in the suture, so that the palate won't relapse when the appliance is removed. OCT monitoring could verify that sufficient bone growth has occurred, possibly shortening the treatment time by avoiding unnecessarily extended appliance wear. As with dental aligners, the methods and apparatuses described herein may also be used to determine how well an oral appliance including a palatal expander fits onto the palate by scanning both the palatal expander and the oral cavity while the patient is wearing the palatal expander. Similarly, deformations of the appliance, the tooth positions, and the palate can be determined by comparing scans of the geometry before, during, and after use of the appliance.

The methods and apparatuses may also be used to measure, and track, features on the teeth and/or palate. For example, bony features, such as the palatal suture, could also be used as reference points when measuring tooth movements. Current intra-oral scanners typically measure the teeth and sometimes portions of soft tissues. But during orthodontic treatment, it is often the case that all of these features move, making registrations of later scans to earlier scans difficult. Features like the palatal suture typically do not change noticeably (aside from palatal expansion treatments), thus, they can provide a reference for proper registration of images spaced in time. In some variations one or more fiduciary markers may be anchored to the teeth and/or to the palate. For example, scanning targets (e.g. temporary anchoring devices, or TADs) may be applied to the patient for this purpose, e.g., by a dental professional (e.g., dentist, orthodontist, etc.). This may allow imaging of bony structures even if the soft tissues over them are too thick for a reliable OCT signal imaging of the bone. The scanning target may be rigidly attached to a bony structure such as the palate, and may therefore reflect the position and/or orientation of the body structure between scans.

Data from 3D scanning of aligners on patients may be collected and used to form a database; this database may include outcomes and treatment commentary, and may be used as a resource in treatment planning and aligner design.

The direct measurement of tooth displacements when the aligner is being worn also may permit the prediction of tooth movement direction as the bone remodels. A patient's treatment plan may be modified by comparing a desired tooth movement, final and/or intermediate tooth position with predictions made by examining the predict tooth movement (including rotation) as determined from the combined aligner/tooth scans. To the extent that the predicted linear or rotational displacements are not aligned with the desired vectors, this information may be used to modify a treatment plan.

Although the examples described herein are specific to OCT, any of these methods may be performed with CT scanning, despite the risk of X-ray exposure, e.g., by providing appropriate shielding.

As discussed above, any of the methods and apparatuses described herein may include can the patient with a dental appliance (e.g., an aligner) mounted in place. Any of these methods and apparatus may also be configured to build a 3D model of all the spaces between the aligner to the dentition. For example, the method may be configured to index or allow a user to select display and/or quantification of spaced between the aligner and the patient's dentition. In some variations, the apparatus or method may allow the user to select areas of contact (e.g., actual contact) between the appliance, e.g., aligner, and the teeth.

The apparatuses described herein may be configured to determine the boundary between the appliance (e.g., aligner) and the patient's dentition by any appropriate method, including, for example, by segmenting the 3D model. When OCT is used to generate images through the teeth and aligner, for example, the resulting images may be combined and used to form a 3D volumetric model of the teeth and aligner. This model may be segmented to identify separate regions. Segmentation may include direct segmentation of the penetrative images. This may allow for the identification of dentin within the teeth, including the location and morphology of the dentin, the identification of the aligner, as well as the identification and location of cracks, lesions, and/or caries in the teeth, including in the dentin. The use of segmentation may allow for reconstruction of a volumetric model based on the penetrative images and the knowledge of the camera position corresponding to the penetrative images. A volumetric model of teeth can be segmented and these segments (relating to different internal structures of the tooth and/or aligner) may be projected back to the images.

The segmentation can be done on 2D images or on volumetric models. The segmentation can be used to classify the images and/or the 3D models according to the presence of different segments. A user may be able to detect by this segmentation manually or automatically (or semi-automatically) to classify different internal structures. Further, the images or models may be used to measure internal regions of an aligner or tooth/teeth, or the regions between them.

As described herein, any of the methods and apparatuses described herein may also include the outputting (via display or otherwise) of an estimate of the magnitude and direction of the force at the points of contacts of the teeth based on one or more of the size of the area of contact and/or the direction of the force, based on the distortion of the shape of the aligner (e.g., relative to shape before mounting).

The information derived and/or presented may be used as part of a dental procedure, for example, to indicate to the dental practitioner how to modify the appliance, such as the aligner. For example, this information may be used to indicate where on an aligner to make holes or dimples in order to change the force system. Alternatively the apparatus may use this information to recommend designing a new aligner.

In any of these methods, as described herein, the appliance (e.g., aligner) may be scanned before mounting to the patient's teeth and/or the teeth may be scanned before mounting the appliance. Thereafter, the mounted (worn) appliance may be scanned, and the resulting models may be compared to calculate the distortion and check virtually if it seated well and likely to function. Areas that are likely disengaged may be indicated.

In any of these methods one or both models may be adjusted or normalized for direct comparison/subtraction. For example, one or both 3D volumetric models of the aligner, teeth and/or teeth and aligner may be morphed by using the teeth or other region(s) to compare and adjust the one or more models; the models may also be aligned. For example, described herein are methods in which the aligner is scanned before mounting and a volumetric model of the aligner is generated. Thereafter a volumetric model of the aligner may be generated after mounting. The apparatus or method may then find areas that were “stretched” and the resulting force generated from this stretch.

In some variations, teeth may be scanned before mounting, and then the teeth may be scanned after the mounting (e.g., thru the aligner). This may be used to demonstrate the immediate new teeth arrangement due to the aligner, and may also demonstrate which teeth have moved in to what direction. The resulting scans (which, as in any of these examples, may be a 3D volumetric model, a series or set of 2D images, a panoramic image, etc.) may be analyzed to determine if the system generated proximal contacts that may stop wanted movements.

Also described herein are methods of determining fit and/or efficacy of a retainer, e.g., worn following a dental procedure such as alignment. In this example, the teeth may be scanned while the patient is wearing the retainer at different time points. Comparison across time may allow the system to determine if the patient's teeth are passive or static (e.g., not moving).

Any of the methods and apparatuses described herein may also be used to determine the sufficiency of or otherwise analyze the spaces left in the oral cavity for teeth to erupt. For example, any of these methods may be used to analyze or determine contacts between teeth (e.g., spacing) and report if it eliminates the planned movement.

For example, described herein are methods of processing a dental aligner, and apparatuses for performing the methods. Processing may include modifying, imaging, adjusting, analyzing, reviewing, fitting, etc. For example, a method of processing a dental aligner may include: scanning, using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; and displaying, storing and/or transmitting the 3D model.

Scanning may comprises scanning a plurality of 3D volumes each comprising a set of voxels corresponding to the aligner and teeth.

Generating the 3D model may comprise stitching the plurality of 3D volumes. In some variations, generating the 3D model comprises filtering the 3D volume to remove noise prior to stitching the plurality of 3D volumes. Any of these methods may include binarization of greyscale 3D volume intensity by identification of local intensity maximums for each Z-section.

Any of these methods and apparatuses may include parsing the plurality of 3D volumes to isolate an aligner outer surface, an aligner inner surface and a tooth surface. Parsing may also optionally identify regions of contact (e.g., collision or contact within a predefined distance). Any of these methods may also include determining or estimating an optical property of the material being imaged and adjusting the geometry of the 3D model based on the optical property.

Any of these methods and apparatuses may also include smoothing each of the aligner outer surface, the aligner inner surface and the tooth surface. In some variations, these method may include correcting an optical path length of the plurality of 3D volumes after isolating the aligner outer surface, the aligner inner surface and the tooth surface.

Scanning may include scanning in the near-IR wavelength using the OCT scanner. In any of these apparatuses and methods, displaying, storing and/or transmitting the 3D model may include displaying the 3D model in real time. Any of these methods may further comprising detecting regions of contact between the aligner and the patient's teeth from the 3D model; and/or determining gaps between the aligner and the patient's teeth, including gaps above a predetermined threshold (e.g., greater than 0.2 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.8 mm, 1 mm, 1.1 mm, 1.2 mm, etc.). For example, these methods or apparatuses may detect gaps between the aligner and the patient's teeth from the 3D model, and/or may display, on the 3D model, the detected gaps.

Any of these methods and apparatuses may also display, on the 3D model, the detected region of contact (and/or gaps).

The methods and apparatuses described herein may also or additionally estimate forces acting on the patient's teeth by the aligner using the detected region of contact.

A method of processing a dental aligner (e.g., imaging, fitting, correcting, adjusting, applying, etc.) may include: scanning, using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the patient's teeth; and displaying the regions of contact.

In any of these methods or apparatuses, displaying may comprise interactively displaying, comprising allowing the user to rotate and/or zoom into the view. For example, displaying may comprise displaying a 3D model of the patient's teeth with the regions of contact indicated thereon.

Any of these methods may include modifying an orthodontic treatment plan including the aligner based on the regions of contact. For example, a treatment plan may be modified by adjusting the amount or type of movement, the location or orientation of one or more attachments, etc.

In any of these methods, the patient's teeth may include one or more attachments, and identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the patient's teeth may comprises identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the one or more attachments. Any of the methods and apparatuses described herein may focus on the attachments, including the interaction between the aligner and the attachments.

In general, displaying may comprise displaying in a user interface accessible to a dental practitioner.

As mentioned, also described herein are systems configured to perform any of the methods described herein. For example, a system for imaging a dental aligner may include: an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner; one or more processors; a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory configured to store computer-program instructions, that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform a computer-implemented method comprising: scanning, using the OCT scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; identifying one or more regions of contact between the patient's teeth and the dental aligner from the 3D model of the combined dental aligner and teeth; and displaying the one or more regions of contact.

Any of the methods and apparatuses described herein may be modified for use to observe, measure and/or treat a palatal region, e.g., for palatal expansion. For example, the methods described herein may be configured as methods of processing (e.g., imaging) a palatal suture, and may include: scanning, using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner, a patient's palatal region while a dental appliance is worn on the palate, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental appliance and the patient's palate; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental appliance and patient's palate; and identifying separation of the palate. Identifying the separation of the palate comprises identifying the rate of separation of the palate.

Also described herein are methods of making, modifying, adjusting or revising an orthodontic treatment plant (e.g., a dental plan) for aligning a patient's teeth. For example, the method may include: scanning the patient's teeth while a first dental aligner is worn on the teeth, using an intraoral scanner configured to record optical coherent tomographic (OCT) images, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the first dental aligner and the patient's teeth together, wherein the first dental aligner has a first design; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined first dental aligner and patient's teeth; identifying one or more of: thicknesses of the dental aligner in a plurality of regions, and regions of contact and/or gaps between the first dental aligner and the patient's teeth using the 3D model; and adjusting the first design of the first dental aligner to form a second dental aligner based on the one or more of: the thicknesses of the dental aligner in the plurality of regions, and regions of contact and/or gaps between the first dental aligner and the patient's teeth.

Any of these methods may also include estimating forces acting on the patient's teeth using one or more of: the identified regions of contact, deformation of the dental aligner, and/or the thicknesses of the dental aligner. The method may also include estimating a change in the shape, thickness or both of the aligner based on the 3D model. Generating the 3D model may include marking the 3D model to show one or more of: regions of contact, gaps, thinner regions of the aligner, etc. Adjusting the design may comprise adjusting the thickness and/or position of a wall of the first dental aligner to form the second dental aligner. The methods may include forming the second dental aligner by one or more of: thermoforming and 3D printing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the claims that follow. A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an intraoral scanner configured to measure OCT.

FIG. 2A illustrates a patient's teeth wearing an aligner. FIG. 2B shows an intraoral scanner imaging the aligner worn on the teeth.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method including imaging an aligner while worn on a patient's dental arch.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate examples of palatal anatomy that may be visualized using the methods and apparatuses described herein.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a method including imaging a patient's palate as described herein.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate one example of image processing through a single slice (e.g., z-section) of scan data for an OCT system (voxel system). FIG. 6A shows a raw OCT scan section in which interface surfaces for each of the tooth, aligner outer and aligner inner surfaces are visible and have been marked. FIG. 6B shows a histogram of 1D optical reflective light intensity from the 2D section of FIG. 6A, indicating that these three primary surfaces correspond to the three highest peak intensities. FIG. 6C illustrates an initial surface identification using the intensity values.

FIG. 7 is a heat map of a single surface isolated from the voxel information in the OCT data. This surface is an aligner inner surface.

FIG. 8 illustrates one example of a section through an OCT scan (e.g., a z-section through the voxel data of the OCT scan), showing raw data, including various noise and artifacts.

FIG. 9A is an example showing three extracted surfaces (tooth, aligner inner, aligner outer) for a single scan of an OCT scanning device (e.g., a 5×5×5 mm region). FIGS. 9B and 9C show two views from different angles of superposition of both extracted surfaces and rendered raw OCT data.

FIG. 10 illustrates one example of a workflow for processing single scan raw OCT data of a patient's teeth and/or aligner, including operation of a voxel mapper (including a noise filter, parser, cleaner and finisher) for performing the workflow.

FIG. 11 illustrates one example of a workflow for stitching multiple OCT voxel datasets together, including operation of a stitcher for performing the workflow.

FIGS. 12A-12B illustrate the operation of a noise filter of a voxel mapper for processing raw OCT data.

FIGS. 13A-13B illustrate operation of a parser of a voxel mapper for identification of local intensity maximums of OCT data after noise filter.

FIGS. 14A-14D illustrate additional operation of a parser of a voxel mapper, showing identification of each of three surfaces in the OCT scan data volume. FIG. 14A shows a section through a filtered volume; FIG. 14B shows a section through an isolated first surface within the volume; FIG. 14C shows a section through an isolated second surface within the volume; and FIG. 14D shows a section through an isolated third surface within the volume.

FIGS. 15A-15B illustrate smoothing and cleaning of one of the isolated surfaces implemented by running a diffusion simulation using white points as a power sources. FIG. 15A is a section through an isolate surface within the volume prior to smoothing, and FIG. 15B shows the same surface following smoothing.

FIGS. 16A-16B illustrate further cleaning the isolated surface from the OCT volume shown in FIG. 15B by skeletonizing the surface (FIG. 16B).

FIGS. 17A-17B illustrate adjusting the optical path length of the volume including all three of the surfaces identified, isolated and processed in FIGS. 12A-16B. A section through the volume showing all of the surfaces combined is shown in FIG. 17A; FIG. 17B shows the same volume after correcting for the optical path length (e.g., based on the known or expected indexes of refraction through the aligner, air and/or teeth).

FIG. 18 illustrates the three extracted surfaces from the exemplary OCT volume processed as described and illustrated in FIGS. 12A-17B, superimposed with cross-section of raw OCT data.

FIG. 19A illustrates one example of a set of teeth having attachments bonded on the tooth to engage with an aligner (not shown in FIG. 19A). Attachments may be any appropriate size and shape. The OCT methods and apparatuses described herein may be used to examine, via OCT scanning, the connection between the attachments and the teeth.

FIG. 19B illustrates the set of teeth with attachments shown in FIG. 19A with an aligner coupled to the teeth and attachments. The OCT methods and apparatuses described herein may be used to examine, via OCT scanning, the connection between the attachments and the aligner.

FIGS. 20A and 20B schematically illustrate examples of OCT systems as described herein.

FIG. 21 is another example of a schematic of an OCT system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) uses a beam of partially coherent light to create tomographic images. There are two basic types of optical coherence tomography: time domain optical coherence tomography and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography. Time domain OCT was developed in 1991 for use in ophthalmic diagnosis. It can produce tomographic images of relatively low quality, resulting from long time of measurement, but it does not readily allow for three-dimensional imaging of objects. Modern optical tomography with detection in the frequency domain (Fourier domain optical coherence tomography) reduces the capture time by more than a hundred times and may be used to create three-dimensional images of the object.

Optical coherence tomography enables the visualization into a volume, and may be used with any wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. It is practical for visible light and near infra-red (Near IR or NIR) wavelengths, though other wavelengths are also possible. Most commercial systems are tuned for NIR, which allows penetration a small distance into biological tissues such as the retina and teeth, however it should be understood that the methods and apparatuses described herein may be used with any wavelength. In particular, when imaging dental appliances such as aligners as described herein, visible light may be used, and may provide high resolution due to the shorter wavelength of visible light (e.g., compared to NIR). In the OCT scanner based systems and methods described herein, the information about the location of scattering (reflecting) layers along the sample beam may be contained in the modulation frequency of the light intensity measured as a function of frequency. The electric signal resulting from detection of spectra of interfering beams is called the signal of spectral bands. Two methods of practical realization of this type of detection may be used. The first is spectral optical coherence tomography (SOCT). The other method is swept source OCT or optical Fourier domain imaging (OFDI). The common elements, used in both methods (SOCT and OFDI), are fixed reference mirrors (as opposed to time domain OCT). This improves mechanical stability of the system. An interference image is obtained by the numerical Fourier transform of registered spectral bands. However, the method of detection of an interference signal is different. In SOCT, the light source generates a broadband light beam. A spectrometer is used to detect signals for individual optical frequencies. In OFDI, an ordinary photodetector is used instead of a spectrometer, because the applied fast tunable laser generates light of a narrow spectral line individually for each wavelength. SS-OCT uses a short cavity swept laser with a tunable wavelength of operation instead of the diode laser used in spectral-domain OCT.

OCT consists of coupled hardware components, and may include software. The hardware, software, and/or firmware may include: a partially coherent light source, an imaging apparatus, a measurement head, a module of data processing, and image generation as well as a computer control system. The light source used may determine its axial resolution and penetration depth of the light beam. The OCT imaging apparatus module may be any measuring device capable of measuring the reflected or backscattered light with high sensitivity and resolution. Other elements of the OCT system may include the measuring head and a system for bringing the probe beam to the intraoral cavity. Analysis of the obtained values, their processing, and presentation may be achieved through a variety of image processing techniques, such as noise reduction algorithms, motion and visualization correction algorithms, segmentation, and image resolution enhancement.

The computer control system may control the entire OCT scanner, and enable control of scanning the reference arm of the interferometer and synchronize the operation of all components. Moreover, it may allow for communication between the apparatus and the image processing block as well as the display of measurement results in real time. An example of this is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, the schematic for an intraoral scanner including OCT imaging includes a light source (e.g. partially coherent light source 103), a controller 105 (e.g., processor for computer control of the apparatus), an OCT measuring apparatus 111 (which may include an interferometer), and a hand-held scanner head/wand 115.

OCT imaging is possible by measuring the intensity and time delay of the “echo” of the reflected or backscattered light. The method of OCT imaging is analogous to ultrasonography. The distance measured by OCT is characterized by a much higher time resolution than ultrasound. OCT resolution may be as fine as 5 μm (compared to 150 μm in ultrasound). OCT may penetrate to a depth of, e.g., 5 mm, depending on the material being scanned. It should be noted that the methods and apparatuses described herein may also or alternatively be adapted for use with ultrasound. Optical tomography is based on the phenomenon of interference of two partially coherent light beams coming from a single source, a reference beam and a probe beam, or in common path OCT, the reference beam may be directly derived from the probe beam. The analysis of interference signal enables the system to locate the points at which the refractive index changes. These points may be situated along the direction of propagation of the probe beam. The reflected wave power density may be a function of the position of the reflective point, which is the source of the wave, and may be referred to as an A-scan. B scans give sagittal scans of the object and C scans may provide lateral scanning images at a constant depth. Combinations of measurement results lying in one plane (e.g., numerous parallel directions of the probe beam) may be used to create a two-dimensional image of the section of the test object.

Boundaries may be determined by layers with different refractive indices (e.g., the refractive index changes as a function of light beam penetration depth) which may be determined by interferometric distance measurement systems.

When imaging the teeth, OCT may be used to image caries, caries incipiens, and cracks in enamel. Soft tissues may also be visualized, including the gingiva, periodontal ligaments (before and during orthodontic tooth movement), etc.

To maximize the efficiency of the dental diagnostic OCT, the wavelengths of light chosen for generating the image may be one that images at least the boundaries of the aligner and the teeth. Light within the near infrared light range may be used. The central wavelength may determine the maximum depth of penetration into the tissue due to scattering and absorption properties. In addition, the material forming the dental appliance (e.g., aligner) may be selected or treated to permit visualization under the wavelength of OCT that is chosen (e.g., within the near-IR range used).

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate one example of a method of using an intraoral scanner configured to take OCT images of a dental aligner being worn on a subject's teeth, and reconstructing a three-dimensional model of the combined aligner/teeth so that interactions between the two maybe examined. FIG. 2A illustrates a dental aligner 202 worn on a patient's teeth 203. Soft tissue, such as the gingiva 204 is also shown. In FIG. 2B, an intraoral scanner 209, configured for OCT is shown scanning both the dental aligner and the teeth.

By scanning the dental aligner worn on the teeth, the apparatus may generate images showing the interaction between two. For example, a 3D representation (images, models, etc.) of the aligner and teeth may be generated, or one or more series of 2D images. These images or models may be analyzed, including automatically or manually analyzed, to identify interactions and/or interference between the two.

For example, the methods described herein may include a method of imaging a dental aligner. FIG. 3 illustrates one method of imaging the combined aligner and teeth. These methods may include first scanning a patient's teeth while the patient is wearing the dental aligner 301, using an intraoral scanner configured to record optical coherent tomographic (OCT) images. The aligner may be properly seated on the teeth, as it would be when worn by the patient. Either the patient or the dental practitioner may seat the aligner on the teeth. The patient may be asked to bite down, to ensure that the aligner is seated. Alternatively, the aligner may be scanned on a model or imprint of the subject's teeth.

The resulting scans will include a combined scan of both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth, together. The scans may then be analyzed by the processor (e.g., image processor) to generate a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth 303. This step may include combining (e.g., stitching together) the scans to form a complete 3D model. Image stitching in this way may be done using known image processing techniques. Sequential scans may be registered, averaged and one or more surface meshes may be generated.

The 3D model of the combined aligner and teeth may be displayed, stored and/or transmitted 305 (e.g., for further processing). Displaying, storing and/or transmitting the 3D model may comprise displaying the 3D model in real time. For example, the 3D model may be displayed in real time, allowing the dental practitioner to “fill in” the 3D model in real time with the intraoral scanner. The displayed image may be marked (e.g., by color, text, flags, etc.) to show regions that are not sufficiently well scanned and/or to show any other features (including contact, etc.).

The 3D model may be analyzed after and/or during scanning. For example, the 3D model may be examined to determine the forces acting on the patient's teeth based on the 3D model. Force may be estimated, for example, by examining the thickness of the aligner when worn on the teeth to the “relaxed” thickness, which may be known (e.g., for aligners fabricated to have a uniform and/or known thickness, e.g., by 3D printing). Alternatively or additionally, force may be estimated by monitoring a marker for force on and/or in the aligner. A finite element simulation of the aligner system may be made and the OCT information may be used to obtain the initial geometry for input to the simulation. The final geometry of the aligner when worn on the patient's teeth (or a model of the teeth) may be obtained and this final geometry may be used to verify the results of the simulation.

In some variations a scan of the aligner may be made when the aligner is not worn, and the change in thicknesses (and/or positions of sub-regions of the aligner) may be identified to determine the forces acting on the aligner. Thus, any of the methods described herein may determine the thickness of the aligner from the 3D model. The forces may be modeled using the 3D data and including constrains of the material properties and/or geometry of the aligner, which may be known. Further, the forces may be absolute or relative. Force diagrams (including thermal plots showing regions of high/low forces) may be generated using the 3D model of the aligner and teeth, or just a 3D model of the patient's teeth, which may also be scanned separately.

Any of these methods may determine/detect regions of contact between the aligner and the patient's teeth from the 3D model. These regions of contact may be detected by directly analyzing the 3D model, to identify close proximity between the surface of the aligner and the dental surface, which may be distinguished using OCT. As mentioned, the 3D model may be used to display the contact regions. In any of the display variations described herein, the resulting analyzed data (e.g., force, contact, gaps, etc.) may be shown on the 3D model including both the aligner and teeth, e.g., with the aligner and/or teeth shown semi-transparent and the highlighted component (e.g. force, region of contact, gaps, etc.) colored, etc.; alternatively or additionally, the 3D model may be manipulated to remove one of the aligner (showing just the teeth) and/or the teeth (showing just the aligner); in some variations a separate scan of just the aligner and/or just the teeth may be performed and may be combined with the 3D OCT scan (any of the 3D scans above may be 3D “OCT” scans, e.g., taken with optical coherence tomography). For example, in some variations the combined aligner and teeth scan may be combined with a scan (e.g., an OCT scan, a surface scan, or other scan modality) of the patient's teeth. The two 3D scans may be placed in registration. Such dual or combined scans may be particularly useful to show features in, on, or within the teeth.

In some variations, a teeth-only scan may be performed prior (e.g., immediately prior, shortly before, etc.) using the same intraoral scanner, using OCT or any other imaging modality (e.g., visible light, etc.). The intraoral scanner may be used to aid in taking the combined teeth and aligner scan, and may be displayed while scanning the combined scan, so that the aligner maybe filled in as the combined OCT scans are acquired.

As mentioned, the 3D scan (e.g., 3D OCT scan of both the teeth and the aligner) may be used to detect gaps between the aligner and the patient's teeth. For example, the surface of the aligner and/or the surface of the teeth may be identified from the OCT scan (or, as mentioned above, from a hybrid OCT and other scan, e.g., surface, scan). Any of these methods may include displaying, e.g., on the 3D model, the detected gaps.

As shown in FIG. 3, the 3D scan may then be used to modify the orthodontic treatment plan 307. For example, the treatment plan may be modified by revising the design of the aligner to better fit the patient, e.g., if the gaps and/or contact mapping shows an ill fit between the aligner and the teeth. The treatment plan may be modified by adjusting the forces acting on the aligner. For example, the distribution of forces acting on the teeth by the aligner may be estimated as described above, e.g., based on the thickness and/or contact points/surfaces. This information may be used to model the movement of the teeth using the scanned tooth position or a separate scan of the patient's teeth alone, and compared to the final (or an intermediate) desired position.

Thus, also described herein are methods of correct, adjusting or revising a dental treatment plan. These methods may also be referred to as methods of making a dental aligner. These methods may include: scanning, using an intraoral scanner configured to record optical coherent tomographic (OCT) images, a patient's teeth while a first dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the first dental aligner and the patient's teeth together, wherein the first dental aligner has a first design. The scans may generate (e.g., in real-time) a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined first dental aligner and patient's teeth. As mentioned, in any of these variations the 3D model may be combined with or displayed overlapping with a prior 3D model of just the subject's teeth. Once scanned, or during the scan, the apparatus may identify regions of contact and/or gaps between the first dental aligner and the patient's teeth using the 3D model (optionally). Finally, the design of the first dental aligner (the “first design”) may be adjusted or modified to form a second dental aligner or series of dental aligners having a second design. This process may be based on the 3D scan, and the analysis of this data, including one or more of: the identified regions of contact and/or gaps, and/or the thickness of the dental aligner when worn.

As discussed above, the forces acting on the subject's teeth may be estimated from the 3D images, e.g., from a change in the geometry of the dental aligner when it is worn on the teeth compared to the thickness of the aligner when it is not being worn. As mentioned, this unworn (or relaxed) thickness and/or shape may be known a priori from the material or fabrication technique (e.g., 3D printing and/or thermoforming) or it may be determined by scanning the aligner in the unworn configuration and subtracting, and/or it may be used as part of a finite element analysis to match predicted changes in the geometry to solve for the forces on the aligner(s). The forces acting on the teeth may be reflected in the compression (e.g., change in geometry) of the aligner. In some variations, the forces on the aligner may be estimated and used to project onto the patient's teeth (or a digital model of the patient's teeth). The distribution of forces on the teeth may thus be based on the OCT imaging data received from the aligner. Alternatively and/or additionally the force distribution may be approximated from the region of close contact, presumably acting to apply forces, directly visualized by the OCT imaging of the aligner on the patient's teeth and/or a model of the patient's teeth.

The modification of the first design may include modifying (from the first design) one or more of the: thickness and/or position of a wall of the first dental aligner to form the second dental aligner. The new aligner or series of aligners may be formed by any appropriate method, including directly 3D printing of the new aligner(s), or of a model of the teeth adjusted to account for the changes, over which a new aligner may be thermoformed.

EXAMPLES

An OCT system may be used for scanning an aligner, or each aligner of a series of aligners, on a patient's teeth, in order to examine the aligner fit and the interaction with the patient's teeth. In some variations the OCT system may scan the patient's teeth and aligner directly, e.g., within the patient's oral cavity. In some variations, the OCT system may scan the patient's teeth and aligner indirectly, by scanning the aligner worn on a model (e.g., a cast) of the patient's teeth. In any of these variations, images of the aligner worn on the patient's teeth may be taken (recorded) for later analysis and/or analyzed immediately.

The scanning system may scan for a variety of fields of view (e.g., dimensions of the scanning field) and/or for various times. Scanning resolution may be, for example, between 1 and 100 microns (e.g., between 2 and 50 microns, between 5 and 30 microns, between 6-10 microns, between 6-30 microns, between 6-50 microns, etc.). As mentioned above, any appropriate wavelength may be used for the OCT, including visible and near-IR wavelengths. For example, in some variations the illuminating wavelength may be between 1000 and 1400 nm (e.g., between 1200 and 1350 nm, between 1250 and 1350 nm, between 1300 and 1320 nm, etc.).

In some variations an OCT apparatus (such as that shown and described above in reference to FIG. 1) may include an OCT scanning laser that operated within a predetermined wavelength or range so wavelengths. For example, the OCT scanning laser may be a 16 MHz laser, a 30, 50, 100, 200 MHz laser, etc.

The field of view may be, for example, a 5 mm×5 mm×6 mm volume; multiple volumes may be scanned and digitally connected (stitched) to form a volume of the patient's teeth and/or dental appliance. For example, depth of view may be from about 5 mm to about 20 mm.

For example in some variations an aligner (or a series of aligners) may be examined while worn on a patient's teeth by scanning, using optical coherence tomography, a model of a patient's teeth on which an aligner is worn. The scan may be a digital (or digitized scan) showing the interface between the aligner and the teeth. The scan may be used to generate a volumetric model either directly or by combining with a volumetric model of the patient's teeth and/or aligner. The OCT scan, including a volumetric OCT scan, may be used to analyze the aligner fit. In some variations, the OCT scan(s) may be used to identify where on the patient's teeth force(s) from the aligner is being applied to patient's teeth. For example, the distance between the aligner and the teeth may be determined from the OCT scan. This may allow visualization of where the force is being applied to the teeth and may also allow confirmation of the force system on the aligner during an orthodontic treatment. Tooth contact information may include both information about where on the aligner the teeth are contacting as well as where the teeth are not contacting.

In some variations the OCT imaging information on contact location may be correlated with expected tooth contact information. For example, the method or system may be configured to extract the actual contact information and compare this to expected tooth contact information based on a treatment plan. In some variations the actual tooth contact data from the OCT imaging information may be used to confirm tooth contact during orthodontic treatment and/or to modify or adjust an orthodontic treatment plan.

In any of these variations, the methods may also be used to visualize the movement of the patient's teeth. For example, acute movements may be visualized (e.g., up to 0.5 to 1 mm, such as about 0.25 mm of tooth movement) immediately after attaching the aligner to the patient's teeth (particularly when intraoral imaging). The use of OCT may allow very high resolution imaging, and may also be sufficiently time resolved to see both acute and longer-term movements. For example, scans prior to placing the aligner on the teeth may be taken (e.g., immediately prior to wearing the aligner) and/or immediately after attachment, and scans of the same region(s) taken at various times after applying the aligner to the teeth (e.g., 5 minutes after, 10 minutes after, 20 minutes after, 40 minutes after, 1 hour after, 1.5 hours after, 2 hours after, 3 hours after, 6 hours after, 12 hours after, 1 day after, 2 days after, 3 days after, 4 days after, 7 days after, 14 days after, etc.) of the aligner to the teeth. Thus, any of the methods described herein may be used to monitor tooth movement during an orthodontic treatment.

The methods described herein may also or alternatively be used to examine the connection of an orthodontic appliance, such as an aligner, to the teeth. For example, the interaction between the dental appliance and one or more attachments coupled to the patient's teeth may be examined using the OCT methods and systems described herein.

In some variations, the methods an apparatuses described herein may be used and/or useful to visualize collisions between teeth during an orthodontic treatment plan directly, which may also allow adjusting of the treatment plan.

The methods and apparatuses described herein may also be used to detect structures within the oral cavity (e.g., teeth, gingiva and/or palate), as described above. For example, the methods and apparatuses described herein may be used for sub-gingival scanning, allowing imaging of sub-gingival regions of the teeth.

For example, in some variations a method of monitoring a dental treatment (including monitoring tooth movement, collisions, etc.) may include: (1) scanning a ‘pre-scan’ of the patient's teeth using OCT without any appliance applied to the teeth; (2) attaching the appliance to the patient's teeth (e.g., snapping it on to the patient's teeth); (3) scanning the patient's teeth and appliance when the appliance is worn on the teeth; and (4) analyzing the data, which may include determining the points of contact with the teeth and the appliance(s), between any attachments on the teeth and the appliance(s), between the tooth and an attachment, tooth movements, etc. The analysis may also include adjusting the patient's treatment plan based on analyzed data. For example, in some variations the scan may include the attachment-tooth interface to evaluate bonding of attachment; voids at the interface between the tooth and the attachment may indicate a potential source of attachment falling. In some variations, the scan may also be used to examine the status of the soft tissue. For example, an analysis of the soft tissue my reveal cancerous soft tissue.

OCT System

The methods and apparatuses described herein may also be configured as intraoral scanners for visualizing depth under the outer surfaces of the oral cavity and/or any appliances. Intraoral depth scanning using optical coherence tomography may allow for the visualization of objects outside of the teeth (e.g., aligners) and within the tooth (e.g., caries, cracks, developmental defects of enamel).

For example, OCT may be integrated in line with the optics or fixed on the side of an existing intraoral scanner, so that the field of view from the OCT may be known to be at a fixed location relative to the scanner head. In some variations the OCT may be combined with surface scanning (e.g., using visual light). In addition to surface scanning, the OCT apparatus may take a series of OCT 2D scans (B scans) that may be captured at high frame rates. Given the known fixed position between the OCT 2D scan relative to the surface scan, the OCT data can be merged to form a model (including a volumetric model) of the patient's oral cavity, which may include the teeth alone and/or the teeth and an appliance.

In some variations, the calculations (OCT alone or OCT and surface scanning) may be performed in real time with parallel processing, which would make it suitable for intraoral use with minimal movement artifacts. At sufficiently high scanning rates, the scans may be stitched together to image a larger field of view than individual scans, in real time. Thus, the method and apparatuses described herein may be used to produce depth information beyond a simple surface scan, in real time which makes it appropriate for intraoral patient use.

To date, existing OCT systems have proven somewhat slow in scanning. The methods and apparatuses described herein may be used to take full tomographic scans that are faster than traditional “slow” scanning by using swept source OCT that typically scans a small area, such as a 5 mm×5 mm lateral area. For example, a single tomographic 3D scan may be constructed of a series of independent 1 dimensional scans (in the depth dimension) that are rastered in the remaining two dimensions. It is possible to detect relevant surfaces (e.g., tooth surfaces, aligner surfaces, etc.) from a single scan, enabling rapid parallel processing.

For example, FIGS. 6A-6C illustrates one example of an OCT 2D image processing. In FIG. 6A, a raw OCT 2D slice shows both aligner surfaces (top and middle surfaces) and the underlying tooth surface (bottom surface). The vertical line on the left 601 represents the location of the 1D line for the image shown in FIG. 6B. Peaks in the 1D line can be identified as surfaces and extracted, as shown in FIG. 6C. In FIG. 6C, the result of the 1D line surface extraction across the second dimension are shown, showing different extracted surfaces.

As mentioned before, there may be an appreciable time lag OCT scanning of larger regions (e.g., in some examples, it may take 5 seconds or longer to capture an entire 3D volume). This delay typically makes real-time scanning challenging. However, described herein are techniques that may allow faster imaging even while using such typically slower scanners (e.g., scanning with the same parameters). For example, a single 2D scan can be captured repeatedly at high speeds (about 50 frames a second) which may be appropriate for real time scanning. Thus, a high-speed 2D OCT scanner can be integrated into a traditional intraoral scanner in order to augment its surface measurements. For example, wavelengths can be integrated directly into the optics of a scanner or be fixed to the scanner at an offset; either way, the location of the field of view with respect to the scanner is known.

A “template” surface may be generated from a traditional (e.g., non-OCT, surface) scanner. Augmented information may be collected from OCT 2D scans which may be processed in real time and superimposed on the template surface. Any augmented information produced in this manner could include, but is not limited to, aligner/tooth gap, aligner thickness, and presence of enamel mineral changes (either by developmental defects or dental caries).

For example, FIG. 7 shows an example of a tooth with attachment bonded to the tooth for interacting with an aligner. The heat map (which may be shown in color), may be superimposed and may represent a gap between the tooth (or an attachment on the tooth) and the aligner. In FIG. 7, the heat map shows that the attachment is engaged on the active surface of the aligner, which is very close to the tooth, on at least one side of the attachment 703. In this example, the 2D section shows registered OCT data.

OCT Scanning for Appliance Design and Verification

Also described herein are systems for usage of OCT scanner for orthodontic aligner design validation and verification. This example includes the methods and apparatuses, including software. For example, described herein are OCT dental scanners (including, but not limited to intraoral scanners) that may be configured to collect, process, display and/or analyze OCT images of a patient's teeth, model teeth, teeth of aligner testing apparatus, and/or a dental appliance. The scanner results may include 3D matrix of light intensity values, and extract inner and outer surfaces of aligner, as well as teeth surface, out of this data. Given that individual scan areas may be relatively small (e.g., ˜5 mm size 3D box), multiple scans may be made and the individual scans stitched together. As scanner position may be unknown, stitching has to be performed automatically by the software and may be done in a variety of ways, including using feature detection and matching.

The OCT scanning technology may be used in orthodontic aligner design. A system may include: (1) an OCT scanner; (2) a scan aligner (e.g., software, firmware and/or hardware) for aligner and teeth surfaces extraction. These two components may be separate or may be combined into a single apparatus.

Using surfaces extracted, areas of direct contact between aligner and teeth may be identified and this information may be used for aligner's design validation/verification, as well as for more accurate mechanical stress analysis of the aligner, as mentioned above. This provides accurate detection of contact areas between teeth and aligner, with the precision of OCT scanner, which is typically in the micron range. The system may allow validation of dental apparatus (e.g., aligner) design as well as dynamic simulation of mechanical stress with higher precision. OCT scanner technology may provide intensity profile with fine resolution (e.g., with a grid step size of about 5-8 um) and of acceptable quality. By scanning a 3D region of interest, which may include a portion of an appliance and/or teeth, and obtaining volumetric intensity profile, this data can then be used by to analyze intensity volumetric data, extract inner and outer surfaces of aligner, as well as teeth surface. It may also be used to identify areas of contact between teeth and inner aligner surfaces. Alternatively or additionally, it may be used to output extracted 3D mesh data in some established formats, such as STL and PLY. This data can then be used for design validation of an appliance, as well as by mechanical stress simulation tools to simulate alignment dynamic process helping to apply forces more precisely and hence achieve better quality of results of simulation. Any of this information may also be used to improve the design of a series of aligners, for example, as feedback for the sequencing, timing or duration of tooth movement.

The systems and methods described herein may address some of the challenges of OCT scanning. For example, typical scanner results may contain a lot of artifacts including, but not limited to: “salt and pepper” noise; vertical and horizontal stripes; and/or missing parts of surfaces' profiles. FIG. 8 shows an example of a raw OCT scan through a dental appliance worn on a patient's teeth, showing such artifacts. For example, salt and pepper noise 803, missing regions 805 and horizontal strip artifacts 807. Such artifacts should be removed before surface extraction, in order to achieve acceptable level of precision of extraction. To enable this, multiple signal processing and filtering techniques may be used, including implementing a median filter, a rotating kernel filter and/or other filters, including novel filtering mechanisms developed using heuristics specific to OCT images made of aligner and teeth described herein (which may be referred to herein as “dental filtering”).

The material forming a dental appliance (e.g., aligner) may have a refractive index that is different from air. Thus, special procedures may be implemented to obtain geometrical data out of optical path length data.

The scanned region (plane or volume) is generally small (e.g., 5 mm on each side) compared to the size of the whole jaw. To scan an object larger than the field of view of the OCT scanner, images can be recorded from multiple positions and orientations and then stitched together to form a single full image of the object(s). As scanner position may be not known, automatic stitching and calculation of mutual positions and orientations of single scans obtained may be used. If the individual images are small relative to the features of the object, accurate stitching may be difficult. Additionally, if many images are needed to cover the object, it may become computationally expensive to determine which images are adjacent to each other. By attaching a tracker to the OCT probe, one can record the position and orientation of the probe relative to a reference frame for each image. This may simplify the task of stitching images, since identifying the adjacent images from this information is easy and because the algorithm will have a good starting point for the final match. A tracker may track position of the OCT probe based on magnetic fields; alternatively or additionally, other tracking technologies could be used, e.g. ultrasonics, stereovision of optical targets, integration of accelerometer, gyroscope, and gravity sensor, magnetometer, etc. To avoid issues caused by patient movements, the reference for the tracker (e.g., the transmitter) can be mounted on a fixture anchored to the teeth or head. Examples of commercial trackers that may be adapted for use in the systems described herein may include the Polhemus or Ascension Technology trackers.

Also described herein are methods and apparatuses for surface extraction from 3D volumetric intensity profile that allow precise and fast reconstruction of tooth and/or appliance surfaces. Other surface reconstruction methods may, given a set of 2D images taken from the different angles of view, build 3D volumetric data; the methods and apparatuses described herein may instead extract 3D surfaces out of given 3D volumetric data, since the OCT scanners described herein output volumetric data (e.g., voxel maps) for relatively small 3D region (e.g., ˜5 mm³ cubes). To build more or less complete images, multiple scans may be taken for different 3D regions. However, this may result in unknown mutual positions of those regions.

In operation, these methods may read in a voxel map for multiple scans made by the apparatus, stitch them all together, extract surfaces, including (but not limited to): the aligner's outer surface; the aligner's inner surface; and the teeth surface. The methods may also identify areas of contacts between inner aligner surface and teeth and may match extracted data (e.g., with ADF). These methods may be used to obtain contact areas and deformed shape of a dental appliance directly, without requiring a time-consuming simulation.

The interpretation of OCT data may be performed in real-time and/or after scanning, and may be done as part of a dental appliance (e.g., aligner) treatment planning method. The analyzed data may be stored as a single database (or file) or as commonly-referenced data (e.g., files). For example, the data received from the OCT scanner (e.g., an intraoral OCT scanner) may be received as a series of voxel maps that are stitched together, and the final combined voxel map may be processed to determine surfaces, as mentioned above, including outer appliance surface, inner appliance surface, and teeth surface. In some variations the contact surface(s) between these surfaces may be identified. For example, the multiple file for each type may be used, such as: outer aligner surface, inner aligner surface, teeth surface(s), and/or contact area. In addition, one or more files with all or some of these surfaces combined may be included (e.g., file with all surfaces together painted with different colors). FIGS. 9A-9C illustrate one example of this. FIG. 9A shows the outer aligner surface 903, the inner aligner surface 905, and the outer surface of the teeth 907, showing a region of contact 909. FIGS. 9B and 9C show views of a region of the teeth and aligner showing both the outer and inner aligner surfaces as well as some detail on inner structures of the teeth.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a workflow (e.g., method) for OCT imaging and processing. In some variations, the scanning may occur first using an OCT scanner. The OCT scanning may occur as described above (e.g., using an OCT scanner, such as an intraoral OCT scanner), which may scan in regions (e.g., 5 mm×5 mm×5 mm volumes) as voxel information. In FIG. 10, each individual volume (sub-volume) may be prepared before or after stitching. For example, each volume/sub-volume may be passed from the scanner (“read scanner data”) 1001 to a noise filter 1003. The noise filer may filter the noise from the voxel information by, for example, normalizing the data 1005, removing horizontal and/or vertical stripes 1007, and/or applying a median filter (volume median filter) 1009. The initially filtered voxel information (data) may then be passed to a parser 1011 to binarize local intensity maximums 1009. The parser may calculate a set of local maximum for each Z cross-section 1013, identify some number (e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) of highest maximums and build corresponding surfaces (e.g., 3 surfaces). These surfaces may then be smoothed 1017, e.g., by iterative smoothing, and the voxel map may be split into multiple parts (e.g., 3 parts). In some variations the parser may be configured specifically to the dental device, such as an aligner, worn on a subject's teeth, and may be configure to ‘expect’ this configuration. For example, the parser may be configured to specifically identify three surfaces corresponding to the inner aligner surface, outer aligner surface and tooth (e.g., 3 parts). In some variations the parser may confirm that the expected structures are present by, for example, verifying that the local maximums are within an expected range.

Once the surfaces have been identified, smoothed and separated into voxel maps, the voxel maps may be cleaned up using a cleaner 1021. The cleaner may run a diffusion simulation first and then binarize back with a threshold 1023, and may remove two-dimensional (2D) and/or three-dimensional (3D) artifacts such as islands and/or gaps 1025. The cleaner may also skeletonize the thick surface(s) in the voxel map 1027. Finally, a finisher may adjust the optical path length 1029, and/or extract meshes 1031, and the extracted data may be output in an appropriate format for storage, display and/or manipulation 1033 (e.g., as STL or PLY files).

The noise filter, parser, cleaner and finisher may be circuitry, and may include one or more processors, which may be configured to execute programs (e.g., code) to manipulate the data. The noise filter, parser, cleaner and finisher may be collectively referred to as a voxel mapper.

As mentioned, the voxel map(s) may be stitched together either before and/or after processing by the voxel mapper. FIG. 11 illustrates one example of a workflow for stitching multiple voxel maps together; in FIG. 11, the voxel maps are stitched together after processing by the voxel mapper. For example, in FIG. 11, a voxel stitcher (or stitcher) receives the plurality of voxel maps that have been processed by the voxel mapper 1101, which has identified the surfaces and cleaned the voxel maps. The stitcher may then build height maps 1103, and identify candidates for stitching 1105. In some variations the stitcher may perform one or more algorithms looking for overlapping regions to identify these candidates. For example, feature base registration (FBR) may be used. After collecting candidates (mutual transforms) by FBR, they may be tuned by applying iterative closest point (ICP) procedure to minimize the discrepancy in overlap areas. For example, overlap grading may be used to find best candidates among all suggestions made by FBR. In addition, candidates appeared to be false positives may be filtered out 1107. Surfaces in the data may then be combined by applying a calculated transform 1109. Stitched surfaces may then be cleaned up in overlap areas based on the transforms calculated; as part of this process, mesh artifacts may be cleaned up, including removing/patching holes, self-intersections, etc. Thus, once combined, the stitched surfaces may be cleaned up 1111 and the combined surfaces prepared for output (e.g., as files such as STL or PLY files) 1113; the 3D surfaces may then be stored, displayed and/or processed further.

FIGS. 12A-18 illustrate an example of the operation of a voxel mapper. For example, an OCT volume from a scanner (“read scanner data”) may be filtered by a noise filter, as shown in FIGS. 12A-12B. In FIG. 12A, a section through the unfiltered volume is shown. The noise filter filters the noise (e.g., vertical and horizontal stripes, salt-and-pepper noise) from the voxel information and normalizes the data to [0,1] range, to produce a cleaned volume, as shown by a section through the volume in FIG. 12B. The filtered voxel information (data) may then be passed to a parser, shown in FIGS. 13A-13B to collect the local intensity maximums. FIG. 13A shows the filtered view prior to parsing, FIG. 13B shows a view of the volume after parsing. The parser calculates a set of local maximums for each Z cross-section (a single cross-section is shown in FIGS. 13A-13B), in which three surfaces were identified and smoothed, as shown in FIGS. 14A-14D. FIG. 14A is the same as FIG. 13B. FIG. 14B isolates a first surface (e.g., aligner outer surface), FIG. 14C shows the isolation of a second surface (e.g., aligner inner surface) and FIG. 14D shows the isolation of a third surface (e.g., tooth). These surfaces may then be cleaned (using the cleaner), as shown in FIGS. 15A-15B, for example, using a diffusion algorithm. FIG. 15A shows on of the isolated surfaces (the first surface similar to that shown in FIG. 14B) and FIG. 15B shows the same surface after cleaning by a diffusion algorithm has been used. The cleaning may result in a thickening of the surface, which the cleaner may correct by skeletonizing, as shown in the example of FIGS. 16A-16B. FIG. 16A shows a section through one of the three isolated surfaces (e.g., the surface shown in FIG. 15B) after cleaning, while FIG. 16B shows the same surface following skeletonizing. Any two-dimensional (2D) and/or three-dimensional (3D) artifacts, such as islands and/or gaps, may be repaired by the method. The voxel map(s) may then be processed by the finisher, which may adjust the optical path length, as shown in FIGS. 17A-17B. From these processed voxel maps, the complete surfaces may be extracted, by building height map based on the cleaned voxel map and applying direct triangulation to the given height map. FIG. 18 illustrates one example showing the three extracted surfaces 1805, 1807, 1809 (also showing a representative single xz-section 1803, corresponding to the section shown in FIGS. 12A-17B).

Monitoring Palatal Expansion

The methods and apparatuses described herein may also be used to image the palatal suture, including internal portions of the palate, without ionizing radiation. The palatal suture is not commonly monitored in dental treatments, as it may be difficult to image, particularly internal structures. The methods and apparatuses described herein may be used to image both the outer surface and regions within the palate. For example, the methods and apparatuses described herein may be used to image the palatal suture and may therefore be used to monitor the progress of therapies such as palatal expansion.

As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the mucosa tissue at the mid palatine raphe is very thin and therefore an intraoral scanner scanning in the near-IR wavelength (e.g., 850 nm, 880 nm, 900 nm, 950 nm, etc.) may be used to determine the palatal suture. This technique may allow palatal expansion (e.g., by a palatal expander) to be monitored during the treatment without need to take CT scans. In FIG. 4A, the midline of the palatal region is the palatal suture (e.g., mid-palatine raphe). As further shown in FIG. 4B, the thickness of palate mucosa at the mid palatine raphe is relatively thin, and may be readily viewed using the methods and apparatuses described herein.

For example, FIG. 5 illustrates one method for monitoring the palatal suture 500. In this method, an intraoral scanner that is capable of scanning both surface scans and penetrative (e.g., near-IR scanning, and in particular OCT scanning) may be used. In this example, the scanner is used to scan a patient's upper arch, including midline region of the palate 501. This scan may be an OCT scan, as described above, or any other penetrative scan. A surface scan may be taken at the same time. The upper arch, including one or more tooth or teeth may be scanned, in addition to the palatal region.

The scans of the upper arch may be used to generate a three-dimensional (3D) model of the arch, including the palate including surface and volumetric information 503 within the arch (e.g., the suture region). For example, the OCT images may be used to generate a 3D volumetric model of the dental arch. The use of the OCT images to reconstruct a 3D model (e.g., a volumetric model) may be an optional step. The 3D model of the arch may be displayed, and/or images (OCT images) of the dental arch, including the suture region, may be displayed, showing internal palate structures (e.g., mid palatine rahphe) 505. A time series of such images or models may be made over time, allowing the dental practitioner to monitor the progress of treatment (e.g., palatal expansion treatment, dental alignment treatment, etc.) 507.

In some variations, the software may automatically determine an expansion rate of the suture. For example, the software may include an automated agent to detect certain reference points on the suture line and determine the expansion rate over time. The reference points may be based on existing anatomical landmarks or distinctive regions or they may be added/artificial (e.g., temporary anchorage devices, or TADs, etc.).

In any of these variations, partial scans may be taken and connected (e.g., “stitched”) together.

Attachment Verification

As mentioned, also described herein are methods and apparatuses for scanning (e.g., using OCT) at high resolution either the connection between an attachment 1903 and a tooth 1905 (see, e.g., FIG. 19A) or the contact region(s) between an aligner 1907 and the attachment 1903 on a tooth (see, e.g., FIG. 19B).

Typically, the initial attachment placement on the teeth by the dental practitioner (e.g., dentist, orthodontist, dental technician, etc.) is time consuming, and it may be difficult to verify proper placement of attachment. In addition, misplaced attachments can lead to an unintended orthodontic force system. The methods and apparatuses described herein may allow for a dental practitioner to scan and adjust attachments (e.g., clear aligner attachments). These methods and apparatuses may also verification of correct attachment placement, which may include a check to see if attachments appear fully filled (i.e., no voids) and if the attachments are subjectively shaped appropriately. Currently, it is not possible to verify the contact between the tooth and the attachment, or the contact between the attachment and the aligner. The OCT based methods and apparatuses described herein not only allow monitoring of these contacts, but may also permit high-resolution (e.g., on the order of about 5 μm) imaging, sufficient to detect slight deviations in attachment shape, positioning, and/or contact.

The methods and apparatuses (e.g., systems) described herein may also allow for the high accuracy dimensional analysis of attachments, including determining the geometric shape as well as the relative position on the tooth of each aligner. These methods and apparatuses may also be used to determine if attachment placement is compatible with planned orthodontic treatment, and may identify required adjustments to attachments (if needed). This may dramatically decrease the chair time the doctors need to spend with each patient and could also increase treatment efficacy by reducing poor attachment placements. These apparatuses may also allow the treating doctor to approve the attachments remotely (e.g., from his/her office or off site).

For example, a method of placing attachments on a tooth may include scanning and examination (manual or automatic) of the connection between the teeth and the attachment. As mentioned, an attachment may be a from that is configured to mount to a tooth and extend from the outer surface of the tooth, such as the buccal and/or lingual surface. The attachment may be formed of a polymeric material, a metallic material or some combination thereof. For example, the attachment may be a small, tooth-colored projection formed of dental bonding material (e.g., white filling material) that is placed at a specific locations on a specific tooth, e.g., at about the middle of the tooth, such as at a level that's halfway between the biting edge and gum line of the tooth. An attachment may be any appropriate shape, e.g., rectangular, square, circular, ellipsoidal, crescent, triangular, etc. The shape and orientation of an attachment (which may also be referred to herein as a ‘power ridge’) may be related to the purpose it serves (e.g., tooth rotation, translation, intrusion or extrusion). For example, an ellipsoidal (e.g., oval) attachment may measure about 1/16th of an inch wide, a little more than that in height, and roughly 1/32nd inches thick. In some variations the attachment may be referred to as a power ridge that is configured to adjust the force applied by the aligner on the tooth or teeth; thus an attachment may, but is not limited to, attachments that connect secure or connect the aligner to the teeth. For example, an attachment (configured as a power ridge) may be formed of a dental filling material that is placed in strategic location on a tooth, e.g., at the gum line on the front side of a tooth that's inclined backward (e.g., tipped inward). A second ridge may be placed on the same tooth but on its backside up near the tooth's biting edge, so that applying pressure simultaneously at these two high and low points on opposite sides of the same tooth from the aligner may help tip or rotate the tooth forward, presumably into a more normal alignment (reversing the positioning of the power ridges may be used to produce a tilting in/backward rotation, for example).

Thus, the methods described herein may aid in placing and confirming the bonding between the attachment and the tooth. In one example, the method (or an automated apparatus configured to perform the method) may include receiving or taking a model of the patient's existing tooth and/or all or a portion of the dentition (upper arch and/or lower arch). For example, the method may include modeling a patient's existing dental configuration by forming a digital model (scanning, e.g., with an intraoral scanner) the patient's dentition or a dental impression taken from the patient. This initial model may be a digital model. In some variations, this digital model of the patient's teeth may be imported from the treatment plan and used for registration purposes.

One or more attachments may be placed on the patient's tooth/teeth. The attachments may be applied to the teeth using any appropriate protocol. One or more guides (e.g., jigs) may be used.

Once the attachments are placed on the teeth (all or some of them), the teeth and attachments may be jointly scanned, preferably using a high-resolution (e.g., having a resolution of better than 10 μm). For example, an optical scan of the surface of the tooth/teeth (e.g., the buccal and/or lingual surfaces of the teeth) may be taken, either in segments or the entire arch. If taken in segments, the segments may be stitched together. In some variations, the scanner may visualize the attachment composite; preferably the scanner may also take a penetrative scan, e.g., using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to visualize through the composite forming the attachment. This may allow the scanner to visualize defects in the material (e.g., composite) forming that attachment, such as cracks and/or voids and to differentiate attachment material from enamel.

Thereafter, the geometry and relative placement of the attachment(s) relative to the tooth/teeth including for all teeth) may be determined. For example, the geometry may be calculated as described above, and/or by subtraction from the pre-scan of the teeth taken prior to connecting the attachments to the teeth. In some variations the attachments may be isolated directly segmenting them from off from the OCT image.

The attachments may be analyzed, e.g., by shape analysis of the attachments, and compared with the intended attachment locations and/or shapes based on the treatment plan or on a database of expected attachment shapes. This analysis may be automated. For example an analysis engine of an apparatus (which may be software, firmware and/or hardware) may comprise an automated agent configured to analyze the attachment(s) and confirm that they are of the proper size and shape and/or are free from defects such as cracks, voids, inclusions, etc. the analysis engine may also confirm the location and/or orientation of the attachment; this confirmation may be based on a comparison with a treatment plan specific to the patient, to confirm that the one or more attachments are within an acceptable tolerance of the clinical treatment plan. In general a clinical treatment plan may include a timeline of patient treatment detailing movement of the patient's teeth and/or the configuration of the aligner(s), attachments and any additional components in order to reposition the patient's teeth into each of a series of desired positions during the treatment.

Any of the methods and apparatuses may also be configured to provide an output to an operator (e.g., user) indicating the status of the attachments. For example, the output may include one or more visual cues that may be presented to the operator showing that the attachment setup is acceptable or indicating specific adjustments that may be done with the attachment. In one example, the output includes displaying on a display an image of the patient's tooth/teeth including the attachment(s) and a color, pattern, or other indicator along with guiding instructions such as “remove flash here”, “fill in void”, “attachment placement is off, take it off and replace it”. For example, the image may show in color regions that must be removed/trimmed, etc. In some variations the attachment(s) may be colored with one or more colors and/or intensities to indicate the level of tolerance with the expected shape/size/location/orientation of the attachment(s).

Once adjustment has been made, the teeth and attachment(s) may be rescanned and the process repeated, until acceptable adjustments have been made. When attachments are placed and/or adjusted by a dental technician, the dental professional (e.g., a supervisor, doctor, orthodontist, etc.) may be notified. The method and apparatus may further output overlays showing a direct side-by-side or one-on-top-of-the-other comparison of actual vs. ideal arrangement of the attachments on the tooth/teeth. For example a visuals of the real vs. planned attachment geometries can be overlaid and compared. The dental professional may then either approve the attachment(s) or indicate additional changes. This indication may be made through a computer interface (e.g., when operating remotely).

Alternatively in some variations, the methods and apparatuses may review and/or confirm the contact region(s) of the one or more attachments and the aligner. For example, OCT may be used to scan the aligner on the teeth and contacts, as described above. Regions of contact between either or both the aligner and/or the teeth may be identified.

In some variations, regions of contact (e.g., overlap) between the aligner and the attachments and/or aligner and teeth may be output to the user (e.g., dental professional, technician, etc.) as a graphical output, as mentioned above. For example, regions of contact between the aligner and the teeth may be highlighted by a color or pseudo-colored region in an image of the aligner and/or teeth, e.g., the aligner may be made transparent on the image, showing just the tooth/teeth and regions of contact. These regions may be highlighted and/or arrows (e.g., vectors) may be indicated in a predicted direction of the force, based on the expected or known tooth and/or aligner geometry. This may aid the dental practitioner in reviewing the treatment and/or modifying the treatment plan. For example, if a region of contact shows or suggests tooth movement (rotation and/or translation) in an undesirable location, the dental practitioner may modify the current or future treatment plan to adjust and/or remove the predicted tooth movement. In some variations, the tooth movement may be modified by changing and/or adding attachments, etc.

In addition to regions of contact between the aligner and the teeth and/or attachments, any of these methods and apparatuses may also identify regions of gaps (separation) between the teeth and the aligner and/or between the attachments and the aligner. Gaps or spaces between the aligner and the teeth/attachments are, in many respects, as important and regions of contact, particularly when predicting the forces acting on the teeth and/or comparing to a desired tooth movement. This is because the force system established by the aligner and the teeth may include regions where the force on the teeth is negligible (e.g., near zero), and may provide regions and/or direction for tooth movement. Thus, the OCT imaging data that may be acquired as described herein may be generally used to analyze the force system including the aligner, attachments and teeth, and may aid in predicting tooth movement.

For example, OCT imaging data showing contact between an aligner and/or the patient's teeth may provide input to calculate a force system. In some variations the method or an apparatus performing it may model forces acting on the teeth based on the regions of contact identified by the OCT images. Finite element analysis (FEA) may be used to model (e.g., by matching to the patterns of contact and tooth positions) the forces acting on the teeth. Alternatively or additionally, defection of the aligner shape (as described above) may be used to estimate force acting on the teeth and therefore expected or predicted movement profiles for the teeth. These movement profiles (based at least in part on the force system analysis) may be used to predict tooth movement and timing and may be compared to the treatment plan to determine if the expected tooth movements and timing is within a reasonable tolerance of that described in the treatment plan.

In some variations, the scanning methods and apparatuses (e.g. OCT scanning) may be used to detect and/or monitor acute movement of the teeth before and immediately or shortly after applying the aligner. For example, in some cases, applying the aligner may result in instantaneous or near-instantaneous (e.g., within a few seconds, a minute, a few minutes, etc.) movement of some of the patient's teeth based on the forces applied by the applicator. For example, in some variations, forces applied by the applicator may move the teeth between 0.05-0.5 mm (e.g., relative to the soft tissue and/or the other teeth in the dental arch(es)) and may identified using the high-resolution OCT scanning described herein. In some variations, the teeth may be pre-scanned using the OCT-based scanning and then scanned immediately (within a few seconds or minutes) after first applying the aligner; small changes in tooth position between the initial (pre-scan) and subsequent (immediate post-scan) images may be identified. These changes may be used to predict tooth larger and/or longer term tooth movements, and may in some variations be used to model root position and/or orientation. This information may be refined by subsequent scanning, e.g., when additional subsequent aligners are applied to the patient's teeth, by taking pre-scan (before applying the second or subsequent aligner) and an immediate post-scan to identify immediate movements. For example, this information may be used to identify resistance centers of one or more teeth, which may allow more accurate modeling of the tooth, including roots, and prediction of its ability to move.

Although many of the variations described above illustrate the use of the methods and apparatuses to monitor the contact between an aligner and a patient's teeth, any of these method and apparatuses may also be used to verify production of the aligner. For example, these methods and apparatuses may be used to verify the quality of an aligner (e.g., examining it for cracks, voids, and/or other flaws) or the like while or after it is being manufactured, prior to providing it to a patient. For example, any of these methods may include examining an aligner on a model or form used to create (e.g., by thermoforming) the aligner. The model or form may be similar to, but distinct from, a target tooth position, as the model or form may overcorrect tooth position, e.g., by positioning the teeth beyond where the intended final position is in order to drive tooth movement, and/or may alter the shape and/or size of the patient's actual teeth in order to include clearance to allow for tooth movement. Thus, when scanning as described herein with a putative aligner on a manufacturing form or jig, the contact between the form/jig and the aligner may be uniform or semi-uniform, particularly over the regions corresponding to the ends (e.g., the occlusal surface regions) of the teeth.

Any of the methods (including user interfaces) described herein may be implemented as software, hardware or firmware, and may be described as a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions capable of being executed by a processor (e.g., computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.), that when executed by the processor causes the processor to control perform any of the steps, including but not limited to: displaying, communicating with the user, analyzing, modifying parameters (including timing, frequency, intensity, etc.), determining, alerting, or the like.

For example, described herein are systems for processing a dental aligner and/or attachments using OCT imaging. FIGS. 20A and 20B schematically illustrate one example of a system. Any of these systems 2001 may include an OCT scanner 2003, one or more processors 2013 and a memory 2015 (or memories) that are coupled to the one or more processors, the memory configured to store computer-program instructions; these instructions may perform any of the methods described herein. Optionally, these systems may include a display/monitor (e.g., output 2019), one or more user inputs 2021 (e.g., keyboards, mice, buttons, dials, etc.). The OCT scanner may include a wand or hand-held scanning head for intraoral application 2003′, and may be functionally connected or may include an OCT optical sensor 2005, an optional surface scanning sensor, a OCT illumination source 2010 (and an optional surface scanning source 2009), and the OCT circuitry, which may include an interferometer 2011, optics, optical cabling (e.g., fiber optics), etc.

For example, FIG. 21 illustrates another example of system (e.g., a computer system) for processing a dental aligner. In this example, the system 2100 includes an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner 2103, and one or more processors including a memory that is coupled to the one or more processors. The memory may be configured to store computer-program instructions, that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform a computer-implemented method. Any of these systems may include (as software or firmware, including as software executable by the one or more processors) a 3D volumetric engine that is capable of assembling a 3D volumetric model from scans (e.g., OCT scans) and/or visible light scans. For example, the 3D volumetric model engine 2104 may be configured to construct a 3D volumetric model of the patient's teeth (including any attachments on the teeth) and/or an aligner.

The system may also include an OCT scanning engine 2106 that scans, using the OCT scanner. The OCT scanning engine may be configured for operating on the patient's teeth and/or aligner(s). For example, the OCT scanning engine may be configured to scan a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth (e.g., scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together). The system may also or optionally include a contact detection engine that may be configured to analyze one or more 3D models of the patient's teeth or teeth and aligners to determine contact between the aligner and the teeth and/or the aligner and an attachment on the teeth. The system may also or optionally include an aligner volume verification engine 2110 configured to analyze the volume of the aligner (e.g., automatically identifying cracks, voids, flaws, thin regions in the aligner. In some variations, the system may also or optionally include an attachment verification engine 2112 that analyzes (and may automatically identify) attachments on the patient's teeth, including looking for flaws in the attachment, miss-attachment, etc. An attachment datastore 2117 may include a variety of attachment configurations for comparison. Similarly a treatment plan datastore 2119 may store and aid in analysis of the aligner, attachments, tooth position, etc. Any of these systems may also include a display engine 2116 for displaying the one or more regions of contact.

In general, a computer system can be implemented as an engine, as part of an engine or through multiple engines. As used herein, an engine includes one or more processors or a portion thereof. A portion of one or more processors can include some portion of hardware less than all of the hardware comprising any given one or more processors, such as a subset of registers, the portion of the processor dedicated to one or more threads of a multi-threaded processor, a time slice during which the processor is wholly or partially dedicated to carrying out part of the engine's functionality, or the like. As such, a first engine and a second engine can have one or more dedicated processors or a first engine and a second engine can share one or more processors with one another or other engines. Depending upon implementation-specific or other considerations, an engine can be centralized or its functionality distributed. An engine can include hardware, firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable medium for execution by the processor. The processor transforms data into new data using implemented data structures and methods, such as is described with reference to the figures herein.

The engines described herein, or the engines through which the systems and devices described herein can be implemented, can be cloud-based engines. As used herein, a cloud-based engine is an engine that can run applications and/or functionalities using a cloud-based computing system. All or portions of the applications and/or functionalities can be distributed across multiple computing devices, and need not be restricted to only one computing device. In some embodiments, the cloud-based engines can execute functionalities and/or modules that end users access through a web browser or container application without having the functionalities and/or modules installed locally on the end-users' computing devices.

As used herein, data stores are intended to include repositories having any applicable organization of data, including tables, comma-separated values (CSV) files, traditional databases (e.g., SQL), or other applicable known or convenient organizational formats. Data stores can be implemented, for example, as software embodied in a physical computer-readable medium on a specific-purpose machine, in firmware, in hardware, in a combination thereof, or in an applicable known or convenient device or system. Data store-associated components, such as database interfaces, can be considered part of a data store, part of some other system component, or a combination thereof, though the physical location and other characteristics of data store-associated components is not critical for an understanding of the techniques described herein.

Data stores can include data structures. As used herein, a data structure is associated with a particular way of storing and organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently within a given context. Data structures are generally based on the ability of a computer to fetch and store data at any place in its memory, specified by an address, a bit string that can be itself stored in memory and manipulated by the program. Thus, some data structures are based on computing the addresses of data items with arithmetic operations; while other data structures are based on storing addresses of data items within the structure itself. Many data structures use both principles, sometimes combined in non-trivial ways. The implementation of a data structure usually entails writing a set of procedures that create and manipulate instances of that structure. The data stores, described herein, can be cloud-based data stores. A cloud-based data store is a data store that is compatible with cloud-based computing systems and engines.

In general, any of the systems described herein may include any computer-readable medium configured to execute the steps of the methods described. Any of these systems may also or alternatively include without limitation a bus, a wired network, a wireless network, or some combination thereof.

When a feature or element is herein referred to as being “on” another feature or element, it can be directly on the other feature or element or intervening features and/or elements may also be present. In contrast, when a feature or element is referred to as being “directly on” another feature or element, there are no intervening features or elements present. It will also be understood that, when a feature or element is referred to as being “connected”, “attached” or “coupled” to another feature or element, it can be directly connected, attached or coupled to the other feature or element or intervening features or elements may be present. In contrast, when a feature or element is referred to as being “directly connected”, “directly attached” or “directly coupled” to another feature or element, there are no intervening features or elements present. Although described or shown with respect to one embodiment, the features and elements so described or shown can apply to other embodiments. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.

Terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. For example, as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and may be abbreviated as “/”.

Spatially relative terms, such as “under”, “below”, “lower”, “over”, “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if a device in the figures is inverted, elements described as “under” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “under” can encompass both an orientation of over and under. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly. Similarly, the terms “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “vertical”, “horizontal” and the like are used herein for the purpose of explanation only unless specifically indicated otherwise.

Although the terms “first” and “second” may be used herein to describe various features/elements (including steps), these features/elements should not be limited by these terms, unless the context indicates otherwise. These terms may be used to distinguish one feature/element from another feature/element. Thus, a first feature/element discussed below could be termed a second feature/element, and similarly, a second feature/element discussed below could be termed a first feature/element without departing from the teachings of the present invention.

Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word “comprise”, and variations such as “comprises” and “comprising” means various components can be co-jointly employed in the methods and articles (e.g., compositions and apparatuses including device and methods). For example, the term “comprising” will be understood to imply the inclusion of any stated elements or steps but not the exclusion of any other elements or steps.

In general, any of the apparatuses and methods described herein should be understood to be inclusive, but all or a sub-set of the components and/or steps may alternatively be exclusive, and may be expressed as “consisting of” or alternatively “consisting essentially of” the various components, steps, sub-components or sub-steps.

As used herein in the specification and claims, including as used in the examples and unless otherwise expressly specified, all numbers may be read as if prefaced by the word “about” or “approximately,” even if the term does not expressly appear. The phrase “about” or “approximately” may be used when describing magnitude and/or position to indicate that the value and/or position described is within a reasonable expected range of values and/or positions. For example, a numeric value may have a value that is +/−0.1% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−1% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−2% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−5% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−10% of the stated value (or range of values), etc. Any numerical values given herein should also be understood to include about or approximately that value, unless the context indicates otherwise. For example, if the value “10” is disclosed, then “about 10” is also disclosed. Any numerical range recited herein is intended to include all sub-ranges subsumed therein. It is also understood that when a value is disclosed that “less than or equal to” the value, “greater than or equal to the value” and possible ranges between values are also disclosed, as appropriately understood by the skilled artisan. For example, if the value “X” is disclosed the “less than or equal to X” as well as “greater than or equal to X” (e.g., where X is a numerical value) is also disclosed. It is also understood that the throughout the application, data is provided in a number of different formats, and that this data, represents endpoints and starting points, and ranges for any combination of the data points. For example, if a particular data point “10” and a particular data point “15” are disclosed, it is understood that greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, less than or equal to, and equal to 10 and 15 are considered disclosed as well as between 10 and 15. It is also understood that each unit between two particular units are also disclosed. For example, if 10 and 15 are disclosed, then 11, 12, 13, and 14 are also disclosed.

Although various illustrative embodiments are described above, any of a number of changes may be made to various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as described by the claims. For example, the order in which various described method steps are performed may often be changed in alternative embodiments, and in other alternative embodiments one or more method steps may be skipped altogether. Optional features of various device and system embodiments may be included in some embodiments and not in others. Therefore, the foregoing description is provided primarily for exemplary purposes and should not be interpreted to limit the scope of the invention as it is set forth in the claims.

The examples and illustrations included herein show, by way of illustration and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. As mentioned, other embodiments may be utilized and derived there from, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein individually or collectively by the term “invention” merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept, if more than one is, in fact, disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing a dental aligner, the method comprising: scanning, using a penetrative scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together with a penetrative wavelength from the penetrative scanner; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; detecting one or more regions of contact between the aligner and the patient's teeth from the 3D model; and displaying, storing and/or transmitting the 3D model.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein scanning comprises scanning a plurality of 3D volumes each comprising a set of voxels corresponding to the aligner and teeth.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the 3D model comprises stitching the plurality of 3D volumes.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the 3D model comprises filtering the 3D volume to remove noise prior to stitching the plurality of 3D volumes.
 5. The method of claim 2, further comprising binarization of greyscale 3D volume intensity by identification of local intensity maximums for each Z-section.
 6. The method of claim 2, further comprising parsing the plurality of 3D volumes to isolate an aligner outer surface, an aligner inner surface and a tooth surface.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising smoothing each of the aligner outer surface, the aligner inner surface and the tooth surface.
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprising correcting an optical path length of the plurality of 3D volumes after isolating the aligner outer surface, the aligner inner surface and the tooth surface.
 9. The method of claim 6, further comprising displaying, on the 3D model, the detected one or more regions of contact.
 10. The method of claim 6, further comprising estimating forces acting on the patient's teeth by the aligner using the detected one or more regions of contact.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein scanning comprises scanning in a near-IR wavelength using the penetrative scanner.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying, storing and/or transmitting the 3D model comprises displaying the 3D model in real time.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting gaps between the aligner and the patient's teeth from the 3D model.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying, on the 3D model, the detected gaps.
 15. A system for imaging a dental aligner, the system comprising: a penetrative scanner; one or more processors; memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory configured to store computer-program instructions, that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform a computer-implemented method comprising: scanning, using the penetrative scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together with a penetrative wavelength from the penetrative scanner; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; identifying one or more regions of contact between the patient's teeth and the dental aligner from the 3D model of the combined dental aligner and teeth; and displaying the one or more regions of contact.
 16. A method of processing a dental aligner, the method comprising: scanning, using a penetrative scanner, a patient's teeth while a dental aligner is worn on the teeth, wherein scanning comprises scanning both the dental aligner and the patient's teeth together with a penetrative wavelength from the penetrative scanner; generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the combined dental aligner and patient's teeth; identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the patient's teeth; and displaying the regions of contact.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying comprises interactively displaying, comprising allowing the user to rotate and/or zoom into the view.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying comprises displaying a 3D model of the patient's teeth with the regions of contact indicated thereon.
 19. The method of claim 16, further comprising modifying an orthodontic treatment plan including the aligner based on the regions of contact.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein the patient's teeth comprise one or more attachments, and further wherein identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the patient's teeth comprises identifying regions of contact between the dental aligner and the one or more attachments.
 21. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying comprises displaying in a user interface accessible to a dental practitioner. 